THE starkest warning yet has been given about the future of maternity facilities at the new £60m Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

THE starkest warning yet has been given about the future of maternity facilities at the new £60m Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

The local council's chief executive, Ken Sawyers, said if the proposed birth centre is not set up it "appears inevitable" that there will be a transfer of inpatient maternity services to Singleton Hospital, Swansea, and Bridgend's Princess of Wales Hospital.

Mr Sawyers said this would lead to the "likely loss" of all outpatient antenatal services in Neath Port Talbot.

But he told the local authority that the change in maternity services must not be seen as the precursor of a further change which would undermine the viability of inpatient hospital provision at Neath Port Talbot.

He said, "There is evidence of excellent performance across the range of hospital services and activity is increasing with the transfers of patients from waiting lists elsewhere."

The Cabinet three months ago advised the Local Health Board that the council's preferred option was a continuation of the status quo.

Although this still remains the case, the Cabinet will tomorrow recommend the council to "agree reluctantly" to support the birth centre proposal until Bro Morgannwg NHS Trust is able to reintroduce a consultant-led service.

The Local Health Board has made it clear the current service cannot be sustained.

This is primarily due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining medical staff, a situation that is not unique to Neath Port Talbot.

Mr Sawyers told the Cabinet the problem of recruiting suitably trained "middle grade" doctors to the maternity service had recently been made worse.

The Royal Colleges (of Obstetrics, Paediatrics and Anaesthetics) withdrew training recognition because of the falling birth rate.

Inadequate numbers of middle grade doctor cover was being experienced in the same areas in which the colleges specialised.

He said the birth centre model was supported by the Local Health Board and Trust as the only means of sustaining maternity services at Neath Port Talbot Hospital.

The birth centre would be staffed by midwives only, thereby overcoming the problems which had led to the disruptions and closures that had beset the current maternity service.

"The Trust has had no difficulty in recruiting midwives and morale among this group of professionals is high," said Mr Sawyers.

"And experience elsewhere - in Caerphilly and in the West of England - has been positive among both midwives and, importantly, by women using the service."

He said the perception of risks associated with the absence of doctors might deter some women while complications during the birth process might require urgent transfers to hospitals in Swansea or Bridgend.

But Mr Sawyers said the problems in relation to recruitment of doctors to the maternity unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital "appear intractable and were the main contributor to the uncertainty surrounding the future of maternity services in this area."

He said new arrangements with hospital trusts would not solve the "staffing crisis".